Q Poll: New Yorkers Split on Cuomo Presidential Talk

Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s job-approval rating reached a new high, but New York voters are split on whether he should seek the White House in 2016, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The Quinnipiac University survey found 73 percent of New York voters—and 69 percent of Republicans—with a favorable opinion of the job Cuomo, a Democrat, has done since taking office. His rating among the GOP tops the overall approval numbers of any of the six other states regularly polled by the university, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida.

But when it comes to speculation surrounding Cuomo’s intentions for 2016, the response was mixed. Only 36 percent of those surveyed said Cuomo should run for president four years from now, while 39 percent said he shouldn’t. Twenty-six percent were undecided.

New York voters were decidedly more excited about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects. A former U.S. senator representing New York, 61 percent said Clinton would make a good president, compared to 40 percent for Cuomo, who served as President Bill Clinton’s director of housing and urban development.

When paired head to head, 54 percent said Clinton would make a better president than Cuomo, while 30 percent backed the current governor.

Meanwhile, the Quinnipiac poll suggests current President Barack Obama will have an easy time capturing New York—a largely Democratic state—in the 2012 election. Obama, a Democrat, has a 55 to 32 percent lead in the state over Republican challenger Mitt Romney, according to the poll.

Quinnipiac polled 1,779 New York voters from July 17 to 23 for the survey. It carries a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.